


Cottage Kingdoms

by Jinko



Series: Malec Week 2016 [4]
Category: Merlin (TV), Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 16:50:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8169011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinko/pseuds/Jinko
Summary: “I can’t come to see an old friend to let him know I’ve found the love of my life?” Magnus teased.





	

“Would you like to go to Wales with me?”

Alec looked up from the book he was reading and frowned at his fiancé, who was already shrugging on a coat. He was reclined across the couch, finally enjoying a day where it didn’t seem like the world was going to end at any moment.

Magnus had been so happy that Alec had the day off, so him offering to take him halfway across the globe meant something was afoot.

“Wales?”

“Yes,” Magnus confirmed and reached for a scarf, too. “A client has asked for a potion that’s generally easy to make, if it weren’t for the rarity of its main ingredient.”

“Wales?” Alec asked again, because really, what was in Wales? He had that tone in his voice, the one that told Alec that there was more to the story than he was telling so far.

“Yes, my love. _Wales_. I have a friend there who owes me a favour, who also happens to be the only person alive with the necessary ingredient.”

Alec marked his spot in the book and sat up, setting his bare feet on the rug. “And?”

“Well, it’s a dragon scale.”

Alec’s interest was officially piqued. “Dragon scale? Dragons have been extinct for centuries.”

“Hence why I need to go to Wales to find this friend of mine.”

“Your friend just conveniently has dragon scales lying around to share?”

Magnus clicked his fingers and Alec’s socks and shoes appeared on his feet. It was his least favourite show of Magnus’ magic, he tended to tie Alec’s laces up too tight.

“Yes.”

“Because they were alive all those centuries ago? That’s, what, over fifteen-hundred years ago? As far as I know, no one’s that old.”

Magnus sighed. “He’s deliberately not on the Clave’s radar. For reasons. So you’ll have to keep it a secret that you met him.”

That solved why Magnus was beating around the bush; there weren’t many who were off the Clave’s radar, especially when they’ve been around for so long.

“Well, my secret-keeping record so far stands at twenty years,” Alec said dryly.

“Good point.” Magnus dashed off into his bedroom and returned with another heavy jacket. “Put this on. It’ll be very cold where we’re going. I’d suggest a beanie if it wouldn’t do a disservice to your hair.”

The jacket was thrown at Alec, who caught it and obeyed. “It’s going to be this cold in Cardiff?”

“He’s gone to extreme measures to make sure no one will find him by making sure the weather is never kind to those who go looking for him, and he’s not in Cardiff. He’s up north.”

“Who is he?” Alec asked and Magnus gave him an unimpressed look.

“If I could tell you, I would. But he’s made it so I can’t say his name outside of the countryside he’s taken for himself. I’ll explain once we’re there.” Magnus started to head towards his study and Alec dutifully followed, only to be stopped when Magnus turned on him sharply, planting a hand on his sternum. “Don’t...geek out when you meet them, alright?”

Alec raised an eyebrow. “What does that even mean? Me? Geek out? I’m not Simon.”

“I am well aware of this,” Magnus said and pulled on the lapels of Alec’s new jacket to kiss him quickly. “But you are going to geek out a little bit, sweetheart. If not about my friend, then about his lover.”

“His lover?”

“Oh yes. My friend and I have far too much in common sometimes,” he grumbled and continued on his way. “Come, now. It’ll take us at least an hour to make our way through the woodlands to reach the cottage and it’s already three in the afternoon for them.”

It wasn’t as if Alec needed a reason to follow Magnus to a different continent on the warlock’s whim, but the fact that this came with so much intrigue certainly helped encourage him to go.

They portalled through without an issue. The issue came from, as Magnus had predicted, the weather.

Alec felt the chill in his bones straight away. It was the kind of cold that left him aching, left his lips stinging and his nose numb in a moment.

“He’s so dramatic,” Magnus hissed and buried his hands in his jacket’s pocket. Alec reached over to bury his right hand with Magnus’ left. “Good idea. This way, when Merlin sees that you’re a Shadowhunter, he’ll know…”

“Merlin?” Alec interrupted. “Your friend is _Merlin_? _The_ Merlin?”

A smile brightened Magnus’ face. “You’re geeking out.”

Alec huffed. “No I’m not.” It was a lie. Merlin. They were there to speak with the greatest warlock of all time, a man Alec thought had died sometime in the sixth century. He was a man of legend. Alec had read everything he could find of him when he was younger. It wasn’t that far of a stretch to suggest that King Arthur was his first ‘celebrity’ crush.

Magnus just laughed and started to pull Alec along with him, heading off towards their destination.

“So he doesn’t like Shadowhunters, then?”

“Can’t stand them and their superior bullshit. They remind him of Uther Pendragon, who killed off so many of our kind during his reign as king. I never got the full story, but he hated magic with every fibre of his being. The fact that his son is now madly in love and living with the great Merlin would have the old fucker spinning in his grave.”

Alec stopped walking. “His lover is Arthur Pendragon? The Once and Future King? Magnus…”

Magnus spun to look at him, still sporting that smile. “I knew you’d geek out harder over Arthur. It’s understandable. His ass is much better than Merlin’s.”

“You — you’re talking about King Arthur’s ass.”

“It really is a lovely ass,” Magnus shrugged. “Yours is much better…” A crack of thunder was heard overhead just seconds before it started to rain. “Oh, you’re being an asshole, Emrys!” Magnus shouted to the sky above and the rain fell harder. Alec watched him wave his free hand above their heads, doing something with his magic to protect them from the rain. “The least he could do is make a portal to get us closer to the cottage.”

When a portal didn’t magically appear, Magnus pouted and led the way again.

“How on Earth did you manage to meet them?”

Magnus shrugged, like this was an average thing for him, like everyone casually knew two of the most powerful and influential historical figures.

“There’s a reason why he’s labelled the Once and Future King. While Merlin, as a sorcerer, is immortal, Arthur is reincarnated every time he dies. Poor Merlin has to endure his death every half dozen decades; it has to be awful.” Magnus skipped on, blasting past that topic, since it was such a tough one for them. “I’d just made it to London for the first time a couple of centuries ago and was in dire need for some cash, so I made it known, more or less, that I was available for certain magical jobs. Arthur came to me about locating Merlin since he had no way of finding him himself. Merlin was in hiding then, but we put out the word that Arthur was looking for him and he found us.”

They started climbing up the side of a hill that Alec couldn’t see the end of.

“Did you ever study under him?”

“Who’s to say he didn’t study under me?”

“Because I’m assuming he’s _much_ older than you and oh,” Alec trailed off when he caught the wink Magnus sent him. “You mean sex — _you’ve slept with Merlin_?”

“And Arthur. At the same time. That was an excellent week, my love.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “What about Queen Guinevere? Or was this a guys only thing?”

Magnus shook his head and let go of Alec’s hand in favour of a tree branch as the hill steepened its incline, using it to heft himself up. “Gwen,” _Gwen_ , he says so easily, “only had eyes for Arthur and Lancelot, and while Lancelot loved them all equally — and he did, he loved all three of them deeply and died for them — it was decided it was best for Gwen to be with Lancelot and Arthur to be with Merlin. She and all the knights are reincarnated following their deaths. Sir Elyan would be my favourite of the knights. Never slept with him, though. One of the few knights who is actually straight, unfortunately.”

“Sir Percival, then?” It was asked as a joke.

“Oh, no. He only had eyes for Gwaine, which is understandable. Never have I met a man with such beautiful hair, my goodness. Second only to Izzy’s wonderful locks.”

“Sir Gwaine?”

“Only had eyes for Merlin.”

“You’re making it sound like the round table was just one wild orgy.”

“Oh the things that could have been,” Magnus sighed and turned to help Alec over the last mound. “I spy with my little eye the cottage of a dreadfully old wizard and his beloved king.”

Alec spotted it, too, when he reached the top.

It really was just a small cottage, lonely and old and nothing at all like Alec had seen outside of an illustrated book of fairy tales.

The wind bore down on them stronger and stronger with every step they took now that they were in the final stretch. They struggled with the last few metres but the moment their boots landed on the welcome mat, which really said ‘welcome’ in large block letters, the wind disappeared, the clouds vanished and the sun got to work warming their chilled bones.

“I honestly hate him sometimes,” Magnus grumbled as he dried them before he knocked on the wooden door that apparently stood between them and _Merlin_.

The door swung open and Alec was left blinking in shock. He’d expected some crotchety old man with a silver beard down to his knees, dressed in robes and a pointed wizard’s hat, and what he got instead was smooth skin, bright blue eyes, perfect cheekbones and jeans.

 _Jeans_.

Merlin, if that was who this man truly was, looked younger than Alec.

“You’re horrible,” Magnus said in lieu of a greeting and the man before them just smiled.

“It wasn’t me, old friend. The forest protects me.”

He held his arms open and Magnus stepped up into them, right in a tight, friendly hug.

“You could have told the forest to cut the crap, Merlin.”

Merlin, now confirmed, released Magnus and eyed Alec. “Perhaps it didn’t like you bringing a Shadowhunter here.”

“He isn’t just some Shadowhunter. He’s my Alec.” Magnus showed off the ring to prove it. No matter how many times that happened, Alec still felt his stomach warm up with affection.

Merlin raised an eyebrow. “A queer Shadowhunter? I never thought I’d see the day.” He stepped aside to allow them in. “I put the kettle on once you cleared the hill — it should be boiled now. Give me your coats, you’ll be warm enough inside.”

Alec almost expected the coats to disappear once in Merlin’s hand, but all he did was hang them up on hooks in the hall.

The hero worship died very quickly. It was hard to be in awe of a person who could’ve easily been some random person on the streets of New York. Sure, he was beautiful, but he was so far from what the stories said he was.

His magic, though, appeared not a moment later. His eyes flashed gold as Alec walked past him, and Alec felt the magic touch him for a moment, then settle over him.

“What did you do?”

“You’ll get them back when you leave. Magnus’ love and trust goes a long way in this household, but not even his word can erase a millennia of bad blood between your kind and myself that easily.” Merlin held his hand out. “I’m Merlin. It’s an honour to meet the man brave enough to ask for Magnus’ hand.”

Alec reached out to shake his hand and paused when his sleeve rose and he saw nothing.

Out of shock, Alec reached down to instead lift his shirt, only to find the same nothingness. Unmarked skin.

His runes were gone.

“You stripped me of my runes?”

He knew the true process was painful yet Merlin had done it with little more than a glance.

A part of him was impressed. The rest of him, which was a much larger part, was outraged.

“Stripping you of your runes is a barbaric process your Clave uses to make sure only those they deem worthy can have access to that angelic blood inside you. I just put them away for safekeeping while you are under my roof.”

“You can trust him, friend,” Magnus said. The excitement of meeting the great and powerful Merlin disappeared very quickly, helped along with the look the old warlock gave Magnus. Magnus just sighed and found Alec’s hand with his own. “You can trust him, too. You’ll get your runes back, everything will be fine. He’s just a stubborn old goat. Surprisingly, Arthur is far more stubborn.” He turned back to Merlin. “You said something about tea?”

Merlin perked up. “Yes! We just got our hands on this beautiful apricot and passionfruit blend from New Zealand. Come on in, make yourselves at home. Mind the dogs, they’re a bit huffy that they’re, well, _dogs_ right now.”

“Dogs?” Magnus gasped, like he’d been betrayed, but still followed Merlin as he led them through the deceptively large cottage. “I thought I smelt something horrible.” He stopped to admire an occasional table. “How you can allow _dogs_ around such priceless items, I’ll never know.”

Alec hadn’t noticed anything about the table that would make it priceless, but he knew enough to trust Magnus’ word on it.

Merlin huffed and they carried on. “You have cats, Magnus. _Cats_.”

“They’re virtually small dragons, which, I might add, you still have!”

Alec paused. “You have a dragon?”

The warlocks both stopped, too, with Magnus shying away from Merlin’s glare.

“Not at the moment. They’ve flown south for the winter.”

More than one. There were multiple dragons flying around. Still living.

Alec couldn’t believe the Clave was so completely in the dark where Merlin was involved.

But Merlin steered them away from that conversation. “And the dogs aren’t normally dogs. I blame Percival’s life as a pirate for their current state. Karma and all that. It finally caught up.”

Alec’s jaw might’ve dropped a little. The knights of the round table had been reincarnated as dogs?

“That’s rather a pity. I would have loved to see Gwaine flirt with Alec. Oh, please tell me he’s an Irish Wolfhound.”

Merlin barked out a laugh. “Ha! He wishes.” He turned to eye Alec. “And yes, I guess he would have been quite taken with your fiancé.”

Magnus sighed when Merlin continued on walking. “He has no idea, even after all these centuries. Had no clue about Arthur’s feelings for a while, either.”

By the time they met up with Merlin in the kitchen, he already had three mugs out. A poodle lay on the tiles in front of the oven, but rose to its feet the moment it spotted the guests.

“Oh, Sir Leon,” he cooed and scratched his golden locks, his dislike for canines disappearing instantly. “What a mean pirate Sir Percival must’ve been.”

Sir Leon huffed about as well as a poodle could before lumbering over to Alec to sniff him out.

“He’s friendly,” Merlin told the old dog as he poured the boiled water into the mugs. “Do you take sugar with your tea, Alec? This one is already quite sweet.” Two heaped spoonfuls were stirred into one of the mugs and was handed straight to Magnus. “Heathen.”

“Must be all the demon blood,” Magnus shrugged and accepted the tea, while Alec declined any sugar.

Once they were settled in the next room over — a very warm and comforting sitting room, where a Rottweiler pup lay curled up on the couch (“Sir Elyan, I see.”) — Merlin got down to business. “So, what brings you all the way here?”

“I can’t come to see an old friend to let him know I’ve found the love of my life?” Magnus teased.

“You need something, then,” Merlin deduced, not buying the tease at all. “Something dragon-related, since you can easily get your hands on anything else you might want. A claw?”

“I’m insulted,” Magnus pouted.

“Your insult doesn’t make me any less correct,” Merlin pointed out.

Alec was all too used to this, this warlock banter, but he was still very much caught up in the fact that the warlock banter was with Merlin.

“I know it can’t be scales; I gave you three dozen last decade,” Merlin said and caught the sheepish look Magnus wore. “Already? My goodness, Magnus. You’re going to leave my Aithusa bare.”

“Word got out that I can make certain potions requiring them — who am I to turn down a well-intending paying customer?”

Merlin sighed again. “And in exchange? What do I get?”

“Oh, I thought I was still owed for returning your beloved to you.”

While there was a cheekiness to Magnus’ tone, Merlin’s eyes, when settled on Alec, were nothing but serious.

“I might have a way to fully repay you, depending on the seriousness of your current relationship.”

“We’d be married already if the Clave weren’t such fuck-knuckles,” Magnus said as his own seriousness started to set in. “Why? Do you have a way to change their minds about same-sex Shadowhunter-Downworlder weddings?”

Merlin’s words were cut off by a symphony of barking dogs, much to Magnus’ chagrin.

“Sounds like Arthur’s home.” Even Elyan came to life from the nap he was taking to tear off towards the front of the house.

Not half a minute later, a hulking great Dane, which his nose pressed to the carpet, bumbled into the sitting room.

“That’s not King Arthur, is it?” Alec asked Magnus, leaning over to whisper the words.

“No, he’s the troublemaker himself, Sir Percival. I wouldn’t expect anything less than a great Dane — oh no, Sir Gwaine?”

Alec had to crane his neck to see the tiny, long haired black terrier that came in after Sir Percival, but suddenly had a great view of him when a pair of strong human arms scooped him up.

There was no doubt who they belonged to.

The blond man who came into the room had a presence about him that Alec could fucking feel, like he was made to have everyone’s heart and ear, like he was made to have respect and did what was needed to deserve that respect.

He was, without a doubt, King Arthur Pendragon, and Alec felt his throat get a little dry at the sight of him.

Magnus, however, didn’t seem to have that issue at all.

“A Skye terrier,” King Arthur said to Magnus with a grin as he dropped Gwaine into Merlin’s arms. “Sixteen reincarnations, he _finally_ comes back as the dog he is and he still manages to have the most glorious hair.” He pulled Magnus off the couch and into a crushing hug. “It’s been too long, old friend.”

“Not long enough, according to your husband.”

“Don’t listen to him; he’s just jealous he still can’t do that thing with his tongue.” He winked in Alec’s direction, because he seemingly knew Alec was there _with_ Magnus without being told. “And your man is…?”

“Alec Lightwood, my fiancé,” Magnus introduced, stepping aside and Alec might’ve felt his knees go a bit weak when he actually shook King Arthur’s hand.

“Fiancé?” Arthur repeated and yanked on Alec’s hand to pull him into a hug, too. “Makes you practically family.”

“I’m sure _family_ don’t do that thing with their tongue to each other,” Merlin pointed out, and while Alec and Arthur were similar in that they were both warriors and leaders, Arthur’s energy was more like Magnus’, Alec realised while Merlin patted Gwaine. Arthur commanded attention and Merlin, much like Alec, was happy to sit back and let him have it.

“Lightwood sounds familiar, though,” Arthur mused when he let Alec go. He turned to Merlin. “Aren’t we hiding from them?”

“Not this generation,” Magnus said. “His parents, sure, but your secret is safe with him.”

The kettle whistled from the kitchen. “Go get yourself some tea,” Merlin said to Arthur. “You and Alec can have a nice chat about whatever it is you soldiers talk about while Magnus and I talk shop.”

“Sounds good. As much as I love the knights, they aren’t exactly the greatest conversationalists at the moment.”

Gwaine jumped off Merlin’s lap as the two immortals left to do their business while Alec followed Arthur into the kitchen with his own mug of tea, which he’d barely touched.

Seeing Arthur in a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans, making himself a cup of tea in a quaint cottage kitchen, was mind blowing.

“Once upon a time, Merlin would pour my drinks for me,” Arthur said as if he knew Alec had been considering his domesticity. “After he saved me from a witch, my father made him my servant. It was an honour to serve the prince back then. He waited on me for a full decade without letting me know he was the most powerful sorcerer to ever exist.”

“I had no idea.”

Arthur chuckled. “No, many of the stories have been greatly mistold. Like Mordred.” Alec was surprised Arthur would go into that voluntarily. “Not my son. Not even Morgana’s son. We never slept together, though I can say I see why it became a part of the story. A child born of incest killing his father? Drama. A little tacky, as romances involving incest normally are, but dramatic nonetheless.”

The whole Jace and Clary situation meant Alec knew the truth of that all too well.

“I recommend returning to the sitting room. Our men tend to take a lifetime chatting and I’m on my seventeenth.”

Alec followed again and when he sat back down in the same position as before, Gwaine hopped up onto his lap.

The idea of patting a knight of the round table was absurd.

“If your eyes were blue, you’d be his type,” Arthur taunted and Alec didn’t need a translator to know the sniff Gwaine sent his king’s way was a dog’s version of ‘fuck you’. It just made Arthur laugh, but he sobered quickly enough. “So. Engaged to Magnus Bane. I applaud you. After what happened to Camille, we thought he’d never be happy again.” Alec scrunched his nose up at that name. “Ah, you’ve heard about it.”

“I’ve met her. She turned my brother-in-law.”

“I volunteered to stake her, but Magnus politely reminded me it would’ve blown our cover here. Please tell me someone’s done it already.”

“Another vampire she turned, Maureen.”

Arthur sipped at his tea, while Alec’s remained in his own hands. “How did Magnus take that?”

“Quietly.” Alec didn’t like to think much of those days. “He hated her, but losing her wasn’t easy.”

“It isn’t.”

Alec wondered if he meant Mordred or Morgana.

He wondered, as he often did, how difficult it would be for Magnus to lose him.

“It can’t be easy on Merlin, either.”

“It’s gotten easier,” Arthur said softly and put his mug aside, and Alec couldn’t believe that. There was no way an immortal could find the death of his loved one _easy_ , no matter how many times he came back. But Arthur leant forward in his chair and levelled Alec with a most dire look. “How serious are you about Magnus?”

“I love him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him, no matter how short or long that life is.”

Arthur nodded, like he’d accepted that answer. “And do you feel Magnus feels the same? You have to understand that while he is your everything for maybe fifty or so years, you will only be a tiny part of his life. He will have to move on without you. He might even forget you one day, hundreds of years in the future.”

This hadn’t been a conversation Magnus and Alec had avoided over the years. Alec had feared, for so long, that all he’d be to Magnus after his death was a man Magnus had loved, like the others before him.

Magnus had assured him each and every time Alec voiced these fears that Alec was far more than that to him. He’d already started gathering what he could to make sure Alec would stay in his life; journals of their dates, photographs, jars filled with Alec’s laughs. He’d looked into extending Alec’s life, removing his own immortality.

“He won’t forget me,” Alec said firmly, because Magnus wouldn’t. “He wants to be be with me for as long as he can.”

Arthur nodded again. “I’m fifty-eight,” he said suddenly and Alec blinked at him because there was no way the man sitting in front of him was fifty-eight years old, “I’m fifty-eight and I won’t be reincarnated ever again.”

“But…”

Arthur held out his left arm and presented the underside of his wrist to Alec. A mark was drawn there, more like a tattoo than a rune. It was half a circle, cut off by the side of Arthur’s wrist, as if the second half would be on his right but wasn’t there from what Alec could see, with lines and dots creating patterns not unlike the symbols he’d seen in some of Magnus’ magic books.

“Merlin has the other half of it,” Arthur explained, “and it’s tied our lives together.”

“As in…?”

“As in, his immortality is my immortality, but my mortality is also his mortality. I can’t grow old and die,” him saying that had Alec’s heart leaping into his throat, “but I can die of a mortal wound. That mortal wound normally wouldn’t bother Merlin before this, but it would kill him now. He dies, I die. I die, he dies. He’s spent the past fourteen-hundred years working on it and finally figured it out thirty years ago.”

This had been the payment Merlin had been talking about.

“He-he can show Magnus how to do this?”

Alec might’ve been shaking a little. He might’ve been tearing up, too.

Magnus wouldn’t have to lose him. He’d be spared that pain.

“Of course, hey,” Arthur soothed quickly, reaching out to rub at Alec’s knee. “Hey, you’re going to be alright, yeah?”

Alec nodded his head, completely overwhelmed. “I just can’t believe…”

“Neither could we to begin with. It only really settled in on my fiftieth birthday.”

“I can imagine,” Alec laughed wetly and rubbed at his wet eyes. It was the relief. It was overwhelming.

“Just knowing that Merlin won’t have to suffer through burying me again is a blessing.” Gwaine huffed and Arthur laughed. “Not that he’s ever buried me, you’re right. He tends to leave my dead body in a lake. There’s gotta be sixteen skeletons in that lake and they’re all mine. It’s not a comforting thought.”

“By the Angel.” Alec was still laughing though.

He’d be with Magnus; Magnus wouldn’t have to watch him age and die. He’d never felt such relief before in his life.

And yes, there would be issues. He’d have to say goodbye to Izzy and Jace and Max and everyone he already loved, but he’d be the one person Magnus would ever have to say it to.

Magnus and Merlin appeared hours later while Arthur and Alec were working on cooking dinner. The first thing Alec did when he saw Magnus was swoop him up in his arms and Magnus held him back just as tightly, telling Alec that he knew about the spell.

It was agreed that Magnus was paid back in full for the time he brought Arthur back to Merlin, and it was also agreed that they’d be in contact more.

Be it five, or eighty years later, they’d be in contact more, and that was a promise that had both Alec and Magnus grinning from ear to ear.

Merlin seemed to like Alec more after his long time spent with Magnus, even going as far as to hug him when it was time for them to leave. The moment they were back in the loft, Alec felt his runes being returned to him, and Magnus dragged him away to find a spot they could fit his next permanent mark.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so this was supposed to be for Malec Week, only I suck and didn't get any of this out in time, so....... Better late than never, I hope.
> 
> I'm on tumblr at [jinkohamilton](http://jinkohamilton.tumblr.com)


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